Prof. Eli Ginzberg of Columbia University cautioned 500 rabbis yesterday not to see the Negro’s quest for power and full equality as a “racial issue.” The noted economist and manpower specialist, speaking at the 69th annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative), warned that the upward thrust of the Negro community will create inevitable conflict with Jews.
“When Jewish shopkeepers are forced to sell their stores in the ghetto, when large numbers of Negroes move into Jewish neighborhoods, when Negroes seek preferential treatment in the school system or elsewhere in municipal government,” he said, “many will feel threatened.” However, Dr. Ginzberg asserted, it is “wrong and dangerous for Jewish leaders to raise the cry of anti-Semitism when such conflicts occur.”
As an example, he cited the recent teachers’ strikes in New York City, which he described as “a confrontation between black power advocates seeking local control of schools and union teachers determined to protect their economic and seniority rights. “Although many of the teachers happened to be Jewish,” said Dr. Ginzberg, “the strike should be seen as a Negro-labor union conflict, not as a racial ethnic confrontation.”
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